My mother sent this story to me in an email.

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee...You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire Soon the pots came to boil In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, 'Tell me what you see.'

'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma the daughter then asked, and what does it mean, mother?'

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the w ater.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hard ship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you e l evate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Dream on 2/7/2008

I was at a dinner at my grandmother's house. I do not recall who was there, but a two of the people died. It was a husband and wife, and they had a son. The murder weapon was an air gun, that looked like a toy gun. I did not see this, but I was told the son set off the gun next to his father's ear, and that he busted his ear drum. I don't think I ever knew in the dream how the woman died, only that she did. In the dream, I took things left over from the meal (which were in the freezer, and were three unfrozen bowls of water). My dream self knew that these things would be needed, but I don't remember why.

Later, I did some research on the computer to see how they died and to investigate the family. At a point I had gone to a police station, but it was fenced in, and no one was in the guard house to open the gate. I knew then the woman's ghost was there, and was mad for some reason. I think her anger had a little to do with me taking the left overs.

Somehow that scene transformed into a park like area. There were policemen surrounding me yelling at me. I was pinned to the ground being strangled by the woman's ghost. I know I tried to tell the policemen to shoot the ghost, but I was the only one that could see her. I didn't see anything specific, sometimes she was invisible, but I could still feel myself being strangled, and sometime I could see her shape in black mist/smoke. The mist form would only appear in flashes, so most of the time she was invisible. At no point in the dream did I think of her as a wrath, but here thinking back she looked like one.

I do not know how I got away from that, but the next scene I was trying to get a hold of Dawn, and have her do a ritual to help me with my angry ghost. I was happy that she could do that right away for me, and I was instantly at her house, her dream house looked nothing like her real house. There were other people there from the study group, but they were like extras. I do not know exactly who was there. I know we had a discussion of whether or not a exorcism, binding, or banishment is ethical against a ghost, but I do not remember the dialog. We did a ritual in her back yard, which didn't look like her real back yard. We poured the left over water, that now had carrots in it, onto a bald patch in the yard. I know there was another scene in here, but I do not remember it. I do know I was satisfied with the ritual, and was sure the ghost was gone.

Later on we did the ritual over again, but it wasn't in the time line after all of this. It was like hitting rewind and recording over the original ritual. That time, the left overs was one of the foil packages for a bar of cream cheese, and we each scraped some cream cheese off the package and onto a gnarled tree stump in Dawn's back yard, which again did not look like her real back yard.

That was the end of the dream.

I'm not sure if this is significant or not, but my grandmother died when I was 12, and even though my cousin's live in her house now, it is not a place for the big dinners like it used to be. The dinner scene in my dream was one of those big grandma dinners with the table loaded with food, and everyone chatting. I don't think my grandma was in the dream, but the setting was back in the time that it was those big dinners. In the dream I did not think of the dead woman as my grandmother, but from what I remember the woman looked like after I woke, is she could've been my grandmother when she was younger. They both had light skin, brown hair, and the same shape face. It could mean something, but it might not. I didn't think of the similarity until a day after the dream.

Another thing I'd point out is that (and I don't want to admit it) is I snore. I've been told I snore like a diesel engine. I had tonsillitis and mono at the same time a few years ago, and my tonsil's have not returned to the correct size. They are still swollen (I had a doctor asked me how I breath-type-swollen). I'll bet money I was snoring when I was being strangled. Later that morning when I was awake, I could actually feel my tonsils sliding back in my throat, cutting off some of my airway, and I started to snore (even though I was awake). I think if I could get them taken out, I might snore less, or not even at all.

That's it for what I can think of other things that could help with an interpretation...

I'm on lunch and must type fast, but it's a really great feeling to get a commission request when I didn't even have to really advertise.  Woot!  I got my first referral from another client today!

Well this is my first post, so I'd better set the mood for the rest of the blog... So here's a little about me:

I am Rizerax. Rizerax doesn't mean anything special. I just like the way it sounds. The name actually came from World of Warcraft. I was using the random name generator for WoW, and something like Rizerax popped up. I liked it, but my finger hit the random button again, so I lost the name. I typed in "Rizerax", because that was the closest that I could come to the original name (which I still haven't figured out what the original name was...).

I am a solitary Wiccan from Ohio. I have been sudying Wicca for about ten years. I don't know when I started to call myself Wiccan. After awhile of reading books on the subject, and generally just liking and identifying more easily to Wicca, than my Roman Catholic upbringing. I gradually decided Christianity wasn't for me, and transitioned into calling myself Wiccan.

I am an Eclectic Wiccan, by the simple definition of the word "eclectic". I have read many different books, from many different traditions, and a decent heaping of Buddhism thrown in. I am in the process of reading "Witchcraft Today" by Gerald Gardner. I felt that knowing the history and origin of my chosen beliefs was important, and thus decided to read the book that started this modern movement. Next on my reading list is "Witchcraft from the Inside" by Raymond Buckland, which I think I will enjoy more. I've already read cover to cover "The Complete Book of Witchcraft" by Dr. Buckland, and have enjoyed his style of writing more than the English Gardner.

Now, Wiccan is my religion, and is a large part of my life, but the other large part of my life is art. Yes, that user picture I have selected as my first, is my own work. I have an Associates of Arts, and hope to eventually make enough money from commissions that I don't have to work at a more mundane job. (Although, I do like the one I have now!) I can work, and am trained, in the more traditional mediums, but I like the digital process better. I can draw from photographs, and real life, but I can't get myself to stray from Fantasy inspired works either.

I have felt connected to the Divine during meditation, out in nature, but I think the most enjoyable, and rewarding times is when it happens in my art. I have a quick sketch of the Horned God that I drew over a year ago, and really felt something else pushing me, and inspiring me on this work. It isn't the best as far as artist prowess go, but I plan on creating a new, finished, work drawing on the old one. The mask has the right shape, but I had to draw quickly, so he came out a little more scary looking than the semi-barbaric, man in the green, that kept appearing in my head.

Well, I thank any of you who've read all of this, and if you want to see my art, it is at Rizerax.DeviantArt.com

 

Blessed Be

~Rizerax